Package and method of manufacture thereof



Feb. 1, 1938. A. WESSELMAN 2,107,096

PACKAGE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE THEREOF Filed Maich s, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 .4. maxim W Wvm Feb; 1, 1938.

A. WESSELMAN PACKAGE AND METHOD'OF MANUFACTURE THEREOF Filed March 3, 1934 2 Sheets-Sheet '2 Patented Feb. 1, 1938 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,107,096 momma m nm'rnon or momcruan manor This invention'relates to a package, and to a method and apparatus for the manufacture thereof.

An object of the invention-is to provide a new and improved sealed package or carton and method of producing the same for keeping foods and other packaged goods in afresh, sanitary, and wholesome condition.

More specifically, an object of the invention is to provide a carton or container and method of producing the same having a novel form of sealing means in the form of simple gussets at the corners thereof, said gussets being provided at no additional expense during manufacture of the cartons.

Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive means'andmethod for the manufacture of cartons or packages of the above stated character.

The foregoing and'other objects are attained by the means described herein and disclosed in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmental perspective view disclosing the simple means and a step in the method for manufacturing the new carton or package.

Fig. 2 is a detail view showing in elevation a novel gusset-forming cutter or blade.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the cutter or blade shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmental cross-sectional view of one form of conventional glueing and filling machine that may be used in practicing the invention.

Fig. 5 is a fragmental cross-sectional view taken on line 55 of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a fragmental end view of the improved carton or package showing the gussets at the flap corners.

' Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a scored and maimed blank from which the improved package is made.

Fig. 8 is a fragmental vertical cross-sectional taken on line 9! of Fig. 1.

foreign substances 'with which the container may come into contact, and to maintain within the container the original freshness, aroma, andwholesomeness of the packaged product. Heretofore, this has been accomplished to a satisfac- 55 tory extent by the use of relatively expensive an outer container.

Fig. 9 is a fragmental cross-sectional view' Packaging of products such as breakfast foods and the like. The lined box construction requires the use of an inner waterproof container generally having a parafline coating, or impregnated with parafline, whereby to provide a substantially sealed container whichin turn is placed within The outer container .is not sealed against moisture, air, and dust, except. that the flaps thereof are glued-in place with no particular degree of care, the package being considered complete so longas it holds together.

Packages of the kind just described are obviously more expensive to manufacture than were the single walled boxes or cartons used previously. Moreover, they require the installation of additional folding and assembling machines, and double the amount of stock is necessary for production of a carton.

In the attempt to produce a single walled container equal in effectiveness to the double container, it was necessary first of all to treat paper and'cardboard to render it substantially impervious to moisture, air, vermin, etc. This has been accomplished, and no diiiiculty is experienced in procuring cardboard and heavy paper so treated.

Practical problems, however, have interfered with the satisfactory commercial use of cardboard or paper containers so treated, because the provdueer and packer have been unable to provide an effective sealing of the joints or comers at v the time of closing the carton or container upon the contents thereof. The various dimculties above related have been effectively overcome by the practice of the invention disclosed herein.

'treated'wlth any of the common preparations for rendering the material thereof impervious to moisture, air, vermin and other extraneous elements that might otherwise enter the box or container.- The box or container includes the side walls 29, 4 0, Ii, 12, glue flaps 28 and various side flaps l2 and i3, and end flaps i4 and i5 which would be folded upon one another and secured together by means of glue or the like, as is common practice at the present time in closing cartons'or containers of the general form illustrated. This closing of the ends of containers is performed by machinery or mechanical means at a rapid rate, with the result that complete closing of the containers at each of the eight corners thereof is rarely, if ever, accomplished with the use of earton blanks such as were commonly used prior to the present invention. However, the provision of what I term gussets, one at each of the eight corners of the blank, as indicated at ii of Figs. 5 and 7, effectively seals each of the eight corners when the flaps are folded down and glued or otherwise secured in place. The gussets, in eflect, plug the corners of the container where the flaps meet when folded over to close the top and bottom thereof.

The manner of forming the gussets may be as follows. Referring to Figs. 1 and 9, i1 indicates part of any ordinary press or carton blank forming machine, which carries knife elements and scoring elements I! and i9, respectively, properly arranged to blank out the carton of Fig. 'l and to provide the various scores and slits 2|. The machine in general may be of any approved type, and it ordinarily includes a reciprocating bed 22 adapted to carry one or more frames 23 in which are clamped a series of carton blanking units comprising the scoring means and cutters above referred to. In practice, a large sheet of cardboard or paper is fed onto the frame to overlie the elements i8 and i8, and this sheet moves, with the bed and frame, beneath a pressure means 24 which forces the sheet against the cutters and scoring elements to provide the blank disclosed in Fig. 7.

Particular attention is directed to the transverse cutters or blades II which provide the slits 2| of Fig. 7. It will be noted that each blade is ground or shaped at one end, as at 25, to slope toward the major axis of the blade, so that any slit 2| formed by the blade will be incomplete at the adjacent longitudinal score 20, especially as I regards the interior surface of the blank. The

exterior surface will be entered by the inclined portion 25 of the blade, to an extent that varies in depth from approximately zero to the'thlckness of the cardboard. In other words, the extreme sharpened end or corner 28 of the blade is adapted to enter the outer surface of the blank at the adjacent longitudinal score 20, or may stop short of cutting or slitting contact with the blank, whereby the portion oi the blade adjacent the end 26 thereof, produces a channel or groove which progressively extends deeper into the blank as the groove or channel extends in alignment with the slit and toward the free ends of. the flaps such as l2, i2, i4 and I! and the groove or channel then merges with that portion of the cut or slit that severs or divides the free ends of adjacent flaps. The carton body, comprising walls 29, 40, ll, 42, and 28, when formed and secured as is common practice, provides a hollow receptacle having the indicated flaps disposed-at and attached to the peripheries of the .opposite ends of the carton body. With the foregoing in mind, and by referring to Fig. '7, it will be evident that outward bending of the side flaps i2 and it away from the observer of Fig. "I will result in partial tearing of the material of the blank such as will form the gussets Ii. The

Fig. '7. This act ordinarily is performed during the flap gluing operation of Fig. 4, wherein conventional gluing means or glue rolls are indicated at 21. The carton may also be filled simultaneously with the said gluing operation if desired.

when the glued side flaps are finally folded'inwardly upon the inwardly disposed end flaps i4 and I5, as suggested by Figs. 6 and 8, the various gussets ii are naturally cramped at the corners whereby to effectively plug or seal the corners against entry of moisture, air, etc. The

cardboard or paper stock for the cartons or containes is invariably made up of thin layes of paper, wherefore the gussets when formed are constituted of a definite amount of stock determined by the shape of the blade ends 25 and the depth of the cut with which such blades enter the stock. The blades therefore must be properly adjused, as to height, within the frame 23 of Fig. 1, or else the compressive force of. roll 2| should be varied to secure the result above set forth.

The various steps of the method of forming the cartons is as follows: After setting up the machine of Fig. 1 to effect the proper scoring, cutting and blanking out operations, the table with a sheet of cardboard thereon is reciprocated relative to the compression means 24, whereby to produce the various scores and incomplete slits shown in Fig. 7. The blank thus formed is then glued along its extended glue flap 28 and shaped into a rectangular open ended tube with said flap glued to the wall 29. Thereafter, the bottom-forming flaps are bent along their score lines, providing gussets as explained, and secured to one another to close the bottom of the contalner. The next operation is the filling and gluing operation ofFlg. 4, which has been explained. Upon closing the top of the filled container by turning inwardly the end flaps i4 and i8 and the side flaps i2 and IS, the gussets at the corners or meeting points of said flaps are securely cramped between the flaps to eifectively seal and plug said corners. The gussets obviou'sly are bound to provide a tight seal because they are thin and more flexible than the carton stock, thereby insuring the formation of. plugs which do not materially resist the closing force of the foldedover flaps.

. Upon completion of the carton or package, a coating of suitable lacquer or other elastic adhesive and cohesive substance may be sprayed, brushed or otherwise applied to the various joints, if desired. A coating of lacquer and/or nitro-celiulose base material solution'is found suitable for this purpose.

What is claimed is:

1. A carton blank of fibrous material comprising a plurality of side walls, end closing flaps carried by the side walls, said end flaps being foldable along transverse fold lines, the end flaD being separated by cuts extending transversely to the fold lines, said cuts extending entirely through the material and terminating a substantial distance from the fold line, the material on the side of the blank forming the outside of the carton, between the ends of said cuts and the fold line, being partially severed in alignment with the transverse cuts and decreasing in depth from a depth equal to the thickness of the material at the end of the transverse cuts to substantially a zero depth near the line of fold.

2. A carton blank oi fibrous material comprising' a plurality of side walls, end closing flaps carried by the side walls, said end flaps being foldable along transverse fold lines, the end flaps being separated by cuts extending transverselycuts decreasing in depth from a depth equal to g the thickness of the material at the inner end of the first mentioned cuts, to substantially as zero depth near the line 01 fold, the side of the blank forming the inside of the carton being uncut from the fold line to the inner ends of the first mentioned cuts.

3. A carton blank of fibrous material comprising a plurality of side walls, end closing flaps carried by the sidewalls, said end flaps being foldable along transverse fold lines, the end flaps being separated by cuts extending transversely to the fold lines, said cuts extending entirely through the-material and terminating a substantial distance from the fold line, the material on the side of the blank forming the outside of the carton, between the ends of said cuts and the fold line, being partially separated in alignment with the transverse cuts at a depth less than the thickness of. the material at the inner ends of the transverse cuts, the side of the blank form ing the inside of the carton being uncut from the fold line to the inner ends of said transverse cuts.

' 4. A carton comprising a hollow body portion and flaps peripherally attached to the opposite ends 01' the body portiomthe flaps being in part severed from one another and in part set, on from one another bychannels or grooves formed in their outer faces, said grooves extending from the points of severance of the flaps toward the carton body and decreasing in depth from the point of severance as they approach the carton body, whereby turning down of the flaps will tear the material at the inside of one of the flaps and thereby form a gusset having a free edge and which gusset decreases in thickness toward the free edge thereof and which free edge has been separated from the said material at the inside of one of the flaps.

5. A carton consisting of a plurality of layers of fibrous sheet material and comprising a hollow body portion and flaps peripherally attached to the opposite ends of the body portion, the-flaps being in part severed from one another and in part set of! from one another by channels orgrooves iormedin their outer faces, said grooves extending from the points of severance of the flaps toward the carton body and decreasing in depth from the point of severance as they approach the carton body, whereby turning down of the flaps will tear the material at the inside of one of the flaps and thereby form a gusset having a free edge and which gusset decreases in thickness toward the free edge thereof and which free edge has been separated from the said material at the inside of one of the flaps.

6. The method of making and closing a carton comprising blanking a carton for setting off a body portion and adjacent flap portions at an end of the body portion, severing the adjacent flap portions in part from one another and forming channels or grooves of varying depth in the outer face of the blank and between adjacent flaps, the grooves decreasing in depth from the point of severance of adjacent flaps, toward the body portion, then turning alternate flaps outwardly and downwardly, thereby creating a line of severance of the carton material from the deepest portion of the grooves or channels across the rear faces of the turned down flaps whereby to form gussets from the. material at the rear faces 01' the turned down flaps, then turning the other alternate flaps inwardly and downwardly into their final or closed positions, then turning the outwardly turned flaps inwardly over the other flaps and gussets and securing the flaps in such positions.

7. The method of making and closing a carton comprising blanking a carton for setting off a body portion and adjacent flap portions at an end of the body portion, severing the adjacent flap portions in part from one another and forming channels or grooves of varying depth in the outer face 01 the blank and between adjacent flaps, the grooves decreasing in depth from the point of severance of adjacent flaps, toward the body portion, then tearing opposed flaps along said grooves by turning alternate flaps outwardly and downwardly, thereby creating a line of severance of the carton material from the deepest portion of the grooves or channels across the rear faces of the turned down flaps whereby to form gussets oi gradually varying thickness from the material at the rear faces of the turned down flaps, then turning the other alternate flaps inwardly and downwardly into their final or closed positions, then turning the outwardly turned flaps inwardly over the other flaps and gussets and securing the flaps in such positions. 7 ALBERT WESSELMAN. 

